Birmingham Police Double Down On Bizarre Arrest, Claim They Have “No Concerns Over Officer’s Actions”
Earlier this week, baffling footage of an arrest out of Birmingham went viral after officers pounced on a young man who had very clearly just been the victim of an assault by multiple people.
Unfortunately, Cody Harper, 20, accidentally punched the female officer because he mistook her for one of the guys attacking him – but why was she arresting him in the first place?
We must demand the immediate release of the bodycam footage from the recent unlawful arrest in Birmingham.
— Anth🇬🇧 (@AnthNFS) July 2, 2026
The handling of this incident is a blatant failure of duty, as the arresting officer targeted the white male as the aggressor despite the clear reality of the situation.… pic.twitter.com/sDmwwZJoKf
Birmingham Police put out a statement claiming the incident had been “dealt with”, and confirming they had arrested and charged Harper with assaulting a police officer.
They then doubled down on that statement – insisting the officer’s actions were “reasonable and proportionate”:
The incident has been reviewed, and we have no concerns over the officer's actions and we are satisfied that they were reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances.
— Birmingham Police (@BrumPolice) July 2, 2026
We would ask that footage is not further shared to allow the legal process to take its course.
The community note on X is pretty damning:
I mean, it makes absolutely zero sense that they’ve “reviewed the footage” and are satisfied with how the incident played out. The attackers literally got away and they arrested the victim of the assault instead. What are the rest of us watching this footage missing?
Besides, if they feel the footage absolves them, why are they asking that people stop sharing it online? Which is a hilarious favour to ask of the internet, in any case.
Cody Harper is due to appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on July 23. Hopefully we get some answers before then because it’s baffling how they haven’t dropped the charges against him yet.
Amazingly, it’s only the second-worst Birmingham police fail we saw this week. Watch THIS.
